The comment about people dying caught her off-guard but she continued to smile as she matched her pace to his enjoying the sunshine and just being able to spend time alone together with the man that she loved doing something as simple as looking for a place to rent. She swung their clasped hands between them as her gaze shifted to roam over the building approval in the smiling eyes that darted from it back to him as she headed for the door to the place. "Oh wow, Babe. I never noticed this place before and I have been by here lots of times. They must have really spent some money redoing it!"

"Oui...I think so too. I'm sure if the inside is as nice as the outside, the room will not be available for long." He smiled at her and squeezed her hand, "Let's see!"

They walked up four wooden steps of 42 Cranapple Street and came to a wooden porch that went around the two street-facing sides of the house. There were wicker chairs and tables around the porch and it looked pleasant although unoccupied at the moment. They went to the door and he knocked. "I'm excited!" he said.

The door opened and a middle-aged woman answered. "Yes? How may I help you?"

"Good morning, ma'am. I'm Captain La Fontaine and this is my wife, Tera. I see you have a room for rent and we were wondering if it is still available; and if so, we'd like to look at it."

The woman smiled a pleasant smile as she pushed open the screen door. "Why yes, it's still available. I had someone interested but they haven't gotten back to me yet. My name is Katherine, but everyone here calls me Katie."

Des smiled warmly to the woman as she stepped forward still holding Jean's hand. She snagged the hat from her head just before entering the building with her free hand out of respect for the woman. Her gaze was constantly roaming taking in the homey touches here and there as well as how nice everything looked. It was obvious that whoever owned this building they cared about the maintenance of the place and kept up with all the repairs.

"Pleased to meet ya Katie." Her heart was pounding and her cheeks had a rosy tint to them as it didn't seem possible but it certainly looked like this might actually be the place. She hadn't seen anything yet to tell her she wouldn't like living here and Katie appeared to be a nice enough woman at first glance and being used to judging people right off the bat Des would have bet she was a good landlady so she was going to take a look at the apartment and pounce her husband as soon as the woman left them alone.

"It's the corner room on the second floor," she said, leading them up the stairs. Jean took notice of the first floor as they walked up the stairs. It had a Victorian flair to the decoration, with a piano on the wall by the stairs. He could smell the remnants of a breakfast. On the other side of the wall from the stairs was a dining room. They walked up the stairs to a second floor landing and hall. He could see that there must be perhaps four apartments to this building (which he would later find to be an accurate guess) not including the downstairs living areas that Katie remained in.

Katie led them to a paneled door of dark wood and unlocked it and opened it up. Jean took Des' hand and they walked inside.

Tera let out a rebel yell that probably could have been heard clear to the Inn itself as she leaped up from her chair and situated herself so that she was seated on his lap, straddling his thighs, facing him with her arms looped around his neck loosely as radiant smile of sheer joy appeared on her face. "We officially now have our very first, very own home!!"

He laughed and hugged her tight. "Yes!! Our own place! And we can buy furniture and food and do all kinds of shopping. He picked her up in his arms and walked out to the balcony. "We shall need a nice little table and chairs here. And maybe a swing for two. I can make that. Pirates are very good with rope swings!" He laughed again and set her down on her feet.

The cowgirl laughed with delight as he sat her on her feet she sat both hands on the railing and leaned over it gazing out over the streets once more before spinning to face him with another radiant, loving smile. Never could she remember feeling all the things that she felt with him and she didn't ever want to forget exactly how he looked at this very moment in time framed there in the doorway to their bedroom. So handsome and very precious to her. She didn't know what she would do if she ever lost him and she didn't want to find out. All that mattered was he was here now and they had a new home that was close to where they both needed to be with no one to see when they came and went anymore.

"A hammock, Babe! You can make us a hammock for out here now that the weather is getting warmer."

"Ah! My wife! She is brilliant!! Yes, a hammock would be perfect!" He slowly sauntered up to her and took her by the collar with both hands, playing with the buttons on her shirt. "I love you so much, Des. My heart...it is filled to overflowing. How can a lowly pirate be so blessed? I don't deserve all this."

Both hands curled over his where they rested on her shirt as she grinned sassily up to him. "I'm not the best catch in town but you are stuck with me now, Babe. There ain't no getting free so I guess ya better just give in and kiss me now before I kiss ya first!"

He laughed, so loving her style. "Nothing could stop me!" He pulled her by the collar, and his mouth met hers. First a soft sensuous meeting of lips, slowly moving over each other, feeling the texture and moisture, feeling each other's breath. Then little flicks of the tongue that quickly turned into a dance of pressing against each other, tips moving against tips, mouth's wide open on each other, heads slowly turning to permit the deepest exploration of each other's mouth. He breathed in deeply, pulling her breath from her and living on the air that had just been inside her lungs. His hands slowly moved over her body, pressing, feeling, exploring the flowing landscape of her curves.

She welcomed him in meeting and matching his passion with her own. Her hands letting go of his to drop so that her arms could go gliding around him as she molded soft curves to hard masculine planes flagrantly inciting a whirlwind of sensations storming to life through her veins. A soft moan escaped as her eyes drifted closed the better to experience his kisses through tactile senses.

He pulled her into the bedroom and brought her to the bed, "Maybe we should celebrate our new home, no?"

Blinking she looked around herself and chuckled huskily realizing they had been in plain sight and she hadn't been planning on stopping at just kissing. "Always watching out for me, Babe. I do love you. I was thinking that very same thing."

He grinned and slowly unbuttoned her shirt, watching her body slowly become exposed as the shirt opened in front. "Yes, I always watch you, my love," he said softly. "You are so beautiful." He took her shirt and let it drop to the floor and began to nibble upon her bare shoulder.

Shivers as the buttons open but not from the air now caressing her skin, from the love and passion in the his gaze as it follows the halves of the parting material until at last it parts completely and is left to fall to the floor. A soft sigh parts her lips as her hands follow suit and deftly remove his shirt sending it to join hers. Slightly work roughened palms are placed upon the sculpted muscles of his abdomen her fingers splayed before she runs her hands slowly upward over the bands of muscles in lingering caresses. She loved the feel of his body beneath her hands. The leashed power that she could feel with her touch was a heady sensation of its own.

He loved the feel of her hands on him, and he loved the feel of her beneath his hands. He loved the look of her trim, sexy body as he slid his hands over her. "We are going to have such a beautiful life together, Des....so much happiness."

Fingers curved over the crests of his shoulders she toed off her boots and gave a shimmy of her hips to help him get her pants off before stepping out of them and kicking them off to the side. "Forever and always and two days worth of happiness, Jean."

His lips moved over her cheeks, he kissed her eyes and her forehead, "I love you."

Des slid her arms under his and put her hands flat on his shoulder blades as she snuggled herself up against him hugging him with her entire body as she nestled her face in the crook of his shoulder and neck while whispering to him, "You are my heart and soul. The only one that matters to me. The very air that I breathe. The one that I live for and one that I would die to save. If the world stopped turning in this very moment. I wouldn't be sorry because I would have got to spend my last moment alive in your arms."

Her words touched him so deeply that for several moments all he could do was look into her eyes. Then, without words, he helped her down on the bed.

Where the words came from she had no idea. When she wanted and needed them the most she could never find them then when she wasn?t trying so hard to tell him how she felt they came. A loving smile touched her lips as she held his gaze letting him see into her heart and soul as she laid back on the bed with him. The petite cowgirl hid nothing from him, never had and never would, he was her husband and deserved her complete honesty and openness and had from the very beginning, even with the tough things.

They spent the next few hours making love in their new home.